St. John's University Athletics
Pregame Quotes: St. John's at Rutgers
3/2/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
St. John's Assistant Coach Mike Dunlap
On moments in the season where the team has taken a step forward:
"It hasn't been one moment. It has been piece by piece. That's been part of the issue with our inconsistency. Phil [Greene] was tremendous against Pitt. Coach [Rico] Hines is in charge of his development and Rico has done a beautiful job with Phil. He had his night and obviously we missed [Moe] Harkless and I thought D'Angelo [Harrison] was ok on offense, but all of us realize we need to be playing better defense. We showed against UCLA, Notre Dame and even DePaul where we were pretty sturdy defensively and I think we came in with the wrong mindset against Pitt. It has been some gain and some loss, but it's indicative of how eclectic it has been."
On notable moments looking back at this season:
"First off, the opportunity to be able to sit in that chair and be a big part of the BIG EAST as a head coach in a stepfather role is very special. You should be thankful for that and I'm thankful for having freshman and one new junior college player and how resilient they are. They have no reference point of disappointment because they've never been through it. Their resiliency has been amazing so I'm very thankful for that. Also, how good that staff has been. Every guy has had to move up a chair and do a little bit more out of his chair. Finally, the fans have been unbelievably understanding. It's hard to be in The Garden or other places where there is a lot of red and black and at times we've been absolutely getting beat and they've been really good with our guys. New York is a tough place, but they're also highly-intelligent fans and if they see our effort is good and we have the ability to comeback they've given us some leeway or some slack. That part I'm grateful for."
On Moe Harkless' ankle:
"We did some stuff with him earlier in practice today and then shut him down and the early piece was ok. Ronny [Linfonte] is as good as there is. He's been all over him and will continue forward with his rehab today. We made some tactical adjustments so we wanted him to walk through those things. We never revved him or had him go full. I'll know more tomorrow, but the signs are good. Right now our mindset is to make sure he was in the film session and did the notebooks, we moved him around and now he's in physical therapy."
Freshman Guard D'Angelo Harrison
On why Moe Harkless deserves the BIG EAST Rookie of the Year Award:
"I think it's easy. He's played really well and should probably be on one of the All-BIG EAST Teams. Moe is a very good player and he should easily win it."
On speaking about the honor with Moe:
"No, we don't talk about it; we just want to win games. The whole team's mindset is to win games and make the NCAA Tournament and shock some people."
On this team with Moe Harkless at 100 percent or not:
"We need Moe every game. We need him no matter what. He's key to everything we do. He rebounds, he blocks shots, he scores so we definitely need him every game at 100 percent. If he's struggling or hurt, it's tough on the team, but people try to pick it up. Phil did a good job of that last game even though we lost. His confidence definitely went up so that's going to carry into tomorrow's game. Moe's good so we're going to be ready to go tomorrow."
Freshman Swingman Moe Harkless
On why D'Angelo Harrison deserves the BIG EAST Rookie of the Year Award:
"He's had an outstanding year. He broke the freshman scoring record last game easily and we still have games left to play. He's been playing well the whole year and if he got the award, it would be a great honor for me as his teammate, the team and the school."
On wanting the award:
"I just want to win [games]. I don't care about stuff like that. If I get it, it's going to be a great honor, but I'm not really worried about it."
On if the two were named co-recipients of the award:
"That would be the best way to do it. I'd rather share it than me have it or him have it. Us sharing it would be better for our team because we're one team."
On if he believes there's someone else in the conference that's in the race:
"I think it's between us two. I don't think anybody else has made a strong enough case to compete with us."
On where the ankle injury affected his play the most at Pitt:
"Lateral quickness... Just being able to move side to side. I couldn't get from spot to spot on defense. It was a smart decision for coach to take me out of the game, because I couldn't really get to my assignment on defense and defensively is where we needed to step up."
On notable moments looking back at this season:
"There's so many... We had a lot of good times this year and we're still having a lot of fun. It has been an up and down season, but we all managed to keep our heads and keep playing. Overall, it's just fun to be around these guys and everybody has done a good job of sticking together. That's what will stick with me the most... How well everyone stayed together through adversity. We became a lot closer this year."
